Trump skips over Ohioans for top posts

WASHINGTON — Even as he has governed in an unconventional fashion, when it came to picking his Cabinet, Donald Trump followed one longtime ritual: Try not to select anyone from Ohio.

In what seems to be a bipartisan custom, Ohio once again is a no-show for presidential Cabinet-level posts. Georgia, Texas, New York and South Carolina each has two cabinet nominees while Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kansas have one apiece.

“None from Ohio — again,” grumbled one Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Every four years, presidential candidates descend on Ohio because since 1964 it has correctly picked the winner every time. But since 1962, only six officials who have made their name in Ohio have served either in a presidential Cabinet or in a Cabinet-level post.

Trump considered Toby Cosgrove, president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Clinic, for the Veterans Affairs post. But Cosgrove withdrew from consideration, preferring to remain in Cleveland.

Coincidentally, the Ohio official holding the highest federal post is former state Attorney General Richard Cordray, a Democrat nominated in 2012 by former President Barack Obama to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But if conservatives have their way, Trump will fire Cordray before his term expires in 2018.

The inability to win a Cabinet post could be the result of Gov. John Kasich refusing to endorse Trump last year, which prompted Trump to retaliate by helping Jane Timken last month unseat Kasich’s handpicked state chairman, Matt Borges. Many prominent statewide Republicans distanced themselves from Trump throughout the campaign.

“I don’t think there is any kind of blacklist for Ohio people,” said Borges, noting that Trump’s “first stop on the thank-you tour was in Ohio. His spat with the governor is obvious, but that didn’t impact his relationship with others.”

Former state Treasurer J. Kenneth Blackwell, whose name surfaced as a possibility for housing and urban development secretary, said, “The president is very keen in knowing who was for him and who was against him, and there were key Ohioans who were aggressively for him.”

“Believe me,” Blackwell said, Trump is “not going to penalize Ohio if in fact his target is the governor and his allies.”

A White House official would only say that Trump “has chosen stellar cabinet officials who are going to help the president lead our nation in a more secure and dynamic direction.”

Ohio Republicans dismiss any fears that the state has been ignored by pointing out that Andrew Puzder, Trump's selection to lead the Labor Department, and Robert Lighthizer, nominated for U.S. trade representative, both grew up in Ohio.

Puzder not only grew up in Cleveland, but he also earned a bachelor of arts degree at Cleveland State University, while Lighthizer was raised in Ashtabula before attending Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

“President Trump has placed a number of great Ohioans around him, including two in his Cabinet,” said Blaine Kelly, communications director for the Ohio Republican Party.

“Ohioans played a major role in electing President Trump, and in doing so, put their faith in him to nominate the best people to make America great again,” Kelly said. “The fact that Ohioans have been nominated is icing on the cake.”

Yet that claim is somewhat of a stretch. Puzder left Ohio years ago for St. Louis as a trial lawyer and now lives in Tennessee. Lighthizer has been a Washington fixture for decades as a member of President Ronald Reagan’s administration and partner at the Washington law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

By that logic, should Kasich ever join a presidential Cabinet, he would be listed as being from Pennsylvania because he grew up near Pittsburgh before attending Ohio State University.

Others say most Ohio Republicans who could have been considered are busy seeking higher office next year. State Attorney General Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Jon Husted plan to run for governor, state Treasurer Josh Mandel and Rep. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township might run for the Senate and state Auditor David Yost is running for attorney general.

“Ohio gave Trump support but its political leadership did not,” said the high-level Republican who asked to remain anonymous. “It was either muted or non-existent.”

“Plus, the president has reached out largely to two groups of individuals to fill his Cabinet and senior posts, and they have been more representative of the military than in any recent past, and to business leaders he has known,” the Republican said.

Some people with Ohio backgrounds have earned key posts, such as Joe Hagin of Cincinnati as deputy chief of staff in the White House; Robert Paduchik, who ran Trump’s Ohio campaign, as No. 2 at the Republican National Committee; Chad Readler of Columbus, nominated as principal deputy assistant attorney general in the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice; and Gary Cohn, director of the White House National Economic Council, who was raised in Shaker Heights.

Cohn, however, left the Cleveland area years ago and made his name on Wall Street as the chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs.

In addition, Daniel M. Slane, former chairman of the board of trustees at Ohio State University, worked on the Trump transition team and might later join the White House.

“Ohio has done OK,” Blackwell said.

Borges said “players change throughout the course of an administration. Just because this first round didn’t include an Ohioan doesn’t mean there won’t be” later in Trump’s term.

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